Quality, inclusion and attention to diversity

Abstract

An equitable and quality public education is, by definition, an inclusive education, as it has the ethical imperative to guarantee access, full participation and learning for each and every student, regardless of their personal differences, social and cultural background.

Inclusion is a process aimed at providing an appropriate response to the diversity of students' characteristics and educational needs, increasing their levels of achievement and participation in learning experiences, school culture and communities, reducing all forms of discrimination, in order to achieve comparable academic outcomes. From this perspective, inclusion represents a fundamental impulse to advance towards a better quality education for all, and must therefore be conceived as a cross-cutting public policy that places attention to diversity at the centre, constituting the articulating axis of the different programmes and actions aimed at vulnerable groups, which are those most at risk of exclusion and school failure.

In this sense, it would not be too risky to say that attention to diversity is one of the key elements in achieving quality education; basically because the best way to ensure that all students learn is by adjusting teaching aids to their particular needs, providing more help to those who need it most.